I don’t know this for a fact, but I am willing to bet that if someone designed a mathematical formula that divided a town’s population by the number of famous athletes from that town, Wilmington would lead the nation for producing the biggest pool of talent.
Who knows, maybe it’s something in our water.
Go on, name a sport, and I will tell you the names of truly great athletes who started off life in Wilmington.
Football? Well, what about Hall of Famers Sonny Jurgensen and Roman Gabriel. Former All-Pro tight end Alge Crumpler and current Pittsburgh Steeler Alex Highsmith are also from Wilmington.
In basketball, there’s Michael Jordan (you may have heard of him), Meadowlark Lemon, and Celtics great Sam Jones.
In boxing, there’s Sugar Ray Leonard.
In baseball, Trott Nixon.
In hockey, Bobby Sanguinetti.
And in professional tennis, there is Althea Gibson!
Gibson was one of the first black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African American to win a Grand Slam with her victory at the French Open. The following year she won both Wimbledon and the US Open, then won both again in 1958. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments: five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title. She is one of the greatest players who ever lived!
Amazingly, after her tennis career was over, Gibson went on to also become the first Black athlete on the Women’s Professional Golf Tour.
This month, the U.S. Mint announced it will honor Gibson by placing her image on a new quarter. This is the fourth and final year the Mint has been producing quarters with the images of famous American women. In addition to Gibson, this year’s class will include Stacey Park Milbern, Dr. Vera Rubin, Juliette Gordon Low, and Ida B. Wells.
The women’s faces will feature on the tail side of a run of quarters, with the designs announced next year. The honorees were selected by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in collaboration with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, the National Women’s History Museum, and the Congressional Bipartisan Women’s Caucus.
The quarters are expected to be in circulation by February.